


The fastest bike

by colderthancold



Series: small town au (memories of an eternal summer) [1]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Bike Race, Descriptions of wounds, how cool, i just got so obviously inspired by a book and a fanfic that got inspired by that book, small town au? small town au!!!, the others are mentioned too - Freeform, they also save a dog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 03:45:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13778970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colderthancold/pseuds/colderthancold
Summary: “Even faster than Eli’s?”Nico has a new bike.





	The fastest bike

“We could’ve stayed there, you know?” Nico said, looking elsewhere. Honoka and Rin were too busy staring at the closed door to look at her. “I would’ve known what to do.” She muttered, placing her head over her hand, her elbow resting over her thigh.

“They thought us this at school, Nico-chan.” Honoka said, eyes still over the white door, her tone of voice sounding a little like a happy-go-lucky cheerful song. She was hitting her feet lightly against the ground, making the dry mud from her sneakers fall on it. “You find a wounded lost dog, you go to the vet to see if the dog’s okay. If the dog’s okay then you can keep it. I was thinking about naming him Motorbike—” Nico made a sound which interrupted Honoka. It was her ‘I’m mad’ or ‘I’m annoyed’ sound.

“What school do you even go to? The vet will come out and first thing he will want will be his pay for looking at the dog. I could’ve taken care of him there, you know? That they thought us at school.” Nico sounded kind of proud but Rin and Honoka doubted how real her statements were, though none of them were brave enough to contradict Nico. “Also, Motorbike is a lame name.” And Honoka didn’t know what to say first— say that she remembered that being thought at school clearly because it had been the day Umi fainted, say that of course she knew what school she went to since they went to the same one, say that they didn’t have any money so they were so really screwed if what Nico said was true or that Motorbike was a sick name.

“Uh…” Was all she could mutter, making Nico sigh. She extended her arm, palm facing up.

“C’mon. Honoka, Rin, give me your money.” She said. Honoka and Rin looked at each other and then dug into their pockets. Honoka had tons of candy paper trash and lint and Rin had an Argentinian peso she had found in the ground the other day. She even had the nerve to shyly put it on Nico’s palm. Nico closed her hand and then put the peso on her thumb. She then hit it with it and it started turning as it went up and then fell. Nico got it and placed her hand over it. She turned it and then took out her hand. It was tails, or so they supposed (due to their poor knowledge in Argentinian pesos). Nico looked at them and there was something eerie about the look in her eyes.

“You know what that means?” She asked, making her voice sound a tad deeper than usual. Rin and Honoka shook their heads. “It means you two are morons!” She closed her hand and made as if she was going to hit their heads against each other, but she didn’t (she could be mean to them and all but she would never harm them— it was the thing she wanted to do the least).

“Hey, we’re not morons!” Rin said. Honoka nodded. The door opened before Nico could scream something else. It was the vet. Long story short the dog needed to stay there and he thanked them for bringing him in— he said it saved his life. They exited the place after they heard all the reassuring words they needed to hear. Contrary to Nico’s belief the vet didn’t ask them for money; she didn’t know he was infamous because of his love for animals, which meant he’d cure the dog for free (and, after that, keep him for himself). It also wasn’t like the dog was theirs— they had found him by the bridge. Honoka made him promise he’d name him Motorbike. He did.

They started walking anywhere; it was three o’clock in the afternoon and they had a whole day ahead of them. Honoka had her hands inside her pockets and a dumb smile on her face. Rin was two or three steps before them kicking a rock. Nico was walking her bike, trying not to smile. She was happy the dog was going to be okay. She thought he would die on their ways to the vet.

“We didn’t pay.” Honoka said. Nico could hear the contained giggles in her voice.

“Yeah.” She said. “But we didn’t get to keep the dog, so what you said was a lie.” She added. She didn’t want the be the only one who was wrong (not like she was the only one that was wrong anyways).

“But we didn’t pay.” Honoka insisted. She looked smug and Nico looked ready to fight her when a sound like a bang interrupted whatever thing was going on between them. Rin had kicked the rock too hard and it had hit a garbage can and almost fell off. She looked at them and covered her mouth (as she always did when she screwed up) and started to walk beside them.

“So does it work?” Rin asked, pointing at Nico’s bike. She had gotten it two days before (the first day of vacation) and wouldn’t stop talking about it afterwards. She didn’t, though, talk about where she got it from nor ride it in front of her friends. Kotori said it was probably a present from her mom because she passed her finals. Maki assured Nico had found it in the dumpster and then gave it a few touches to pretend it was new and show off to them her new ‘stupid piece of trash’, as she said. Nico didn’t say anything, not even the slightest thing. She didn’t even lie like she did other times. She just kept silent, kept mysterious.

“Of course it does! I bet you three ice-creams it’s the fastest bike around here.” Nico said, and as three ice-creams was a lot Rin believed her and oohed.

“Even faster than Eli’s?” Honoka asked. Nico nodded.

“Of course it’s faster than Eli’s! Can’t you see that this bike could kick Eli’s bike’s ass in one second?” But they couldn’t see it. Saying the bike was old would have been almost a compliment. Honoka could recall seeing bikes like that when she was three years old or something, and they were called old-fashioned back then. It was rusty in some parts (not as many as you’d think, though) and both Rin and Honoka were pretty sure the reason Nico wouldn’t ride it was because one of the wheels (or both) were deflated and because the handlebar and saddle didn’t seem stable.

“When are you gonna ride it, then?” Rin asked. She didn’t have her bike as for that moment and was hoping that maybe Nico would let her ride with her because Hanayo’s parents wouldn’t let them ride double (it didn’t matter who was controlling the bike) after Hanayo broke her arm and Rin her nose four years ago doing so.

“Soon enough. Just gotta give it some details more and it’ll be ready to fly.” She said. She was griping the handlebar so hard her the palm of her hand was ghost-white. “Soon enough.”

 

The big day came three days later. They were now on top of one of the tallest hills near town, everyone sitting down aside Nico and Eli, who were about to have a competition.

“I don’t think I want to do this, Nico.” Eli said, looking at the angle in which the hill fell into ground. The road (which was one that lead into the town they lived in) was paved but it had been paved like thirty years ago or something and looked terrible in Eli’s eyes. It was surrounded by yellow knee-height grass until the town started— which meant more pavement. “It’s dangerous. I heard someone—” Nico interrupted her.

“I heard someone was scared my bike would be faster than hers.” She said. Eli looked at her and her face was so serious it was almost scary.

“I’m serious, Nico. It’s really dangerous. I heard someone broke their neck going down here on a dare. I don’t want to break my neck.” She touched her neck as if to make sure it was still in there and fine.

“Sounds like just excuses to me, Elichika, what can I say?” She had a big smile on her face and for a moment Eli thought she was going crazy. “Are you gonna chicken out or are you gonna do it?” She asked. Eli didn’t know what to do. She glared back at her friends. Everyone waiting for her answer. Their eyes were bright and Eli sighed. She was going to do it for them, and also for Nico (Eli felt like she had to do it especially for her, but it was too complicated for her to know exactly why).

“Let’s go.” She said. They both got on their bikes. Eli was starting to feel regretful when Kotori said go. She started pedaling. The wind was hitting her face ragingly as they both dove to what seemed to be their deaths. Why they never wore helmets, Eli wondered. They were necessary but none of them had ever owned one.

Her bike was going down so fast she felt like she was turning into an spaceship. She looked at her side. Nico was just next to her, frowning, eyes almost closed, standing on the pedals. Eli wanted to say something. No words came out of her mouth. They were just in half of the slope and Eli wanted to break bad— though she couldn’t do it. If she did so, she thought, things would end up worse. So she kept going faster and kept growing more and more afraid until she remembered nothing else.

What happened next is something Nozomi and Rin had to tell them. Long story short Nico lost control of her bike because she hadn’t fixed it correctly, she hit Eli and they were both sent flying to the grass in the less peaceful way possible. Eli had a huge cut on her right leg and her wrist was as good as useless. Nico’s arms were dotted in bruises and her nose had bleed for an eternity. She had cut her eyebrow and almost broke her knee (which looked straight out of a nightmare). Her lips were soared and huge, and the first thing she asked when she was conscious enough was ‘did I win?’. No one answered.

 

“Sorry.” Nico said as she ate her ice-cream. Her lips looked almost normal now. Eli licked hers without looking at her.

“Yeah.” She said. It was the first time they talked after the accident (which had been four days ago) and Nico had treated her an ice-cream. Eli knew her apology was honest because Nico first of all never treated anything to anyone and secondly she never said sorry even if she was wrong. She felt Nico sigh.

“I found it in the dumpster. I was so excited, you know? I had never had a bike before and just was… so proud, I guess. Fixed it with the help of mom and I guess we aren’t any good at fixing bikes.” She laughed a bit and sounded too sad. “I had found other bikes on the dumpster before —it’s not unusual to find some that look as good as new— but this one was different. It looked like my dad’s, you know? So I rushed home with it and wanted it to look exactly like his. Mom knew so too, even if I didn’t tell her. And when Honoka asked me if it was faster than yours, when I still had to fix half of it… I got too excited and greedy. I won’t lie to you, Eli. Your bike makes me jealous.” She laughed again, this time sounding more honest but not any less sad. Eli knew that with bike she meant something else.

“It’s alright.” Eli said. “Is the bike okay?” She asked. Nico nodded.

“Hanayo says her dad knows how to fix bikes. Said he’d do it for free. I said I don’t need no charity but she insisted and said it wasn’t charity because I am her friend and all of that. My comment got her kinda nervous. She looked cute. Yours?”

“It’s fine, I guess. Kinda dirty but aside from that it’s still rolling. Not like I can take it out now.” She showed Nico her wrist, which had a bandage going around it a few times. Nico giggled.

“Guess you’ll have to ride double with Nozomi then.” Nico said. Eli nodded.

“Yeah.” She said. No one liked to ride double with Nozomi (aside from Kotori) because she always joked around and pretended she was going to hit something or pretended she was going directly towards a dead end for fun. She never hit anything but it was an scary experience.

They stayed silent for a while. Summer was starting and they already had reached the limit of wounds they could get. She felt Nico fidget. They had finished their ice-creams.

“What I told you before,” Nico started. Eli knew what she wanted to say. “Don’t tell anyone about it. It wasn’t for you to feel pity for me and they weren’t excuses either— I just wanted to be honest with you for once, explain to you why I was acting like that. I don’t need you to feel pity for me or—” But Eli stopped her. She was chuckling.

“Pity? For you? You’ve got to be kidding. I could never feel pity for some as terrible as you.” She hit Nico lightly in the arm and Nico chuckled.

“Very funny. Guess you can’t get over my bike was faster than yours.” Nico said. Her eyes had a twinkle in them. Eli sighed.

“Yeah, I guess.” She smiled. “I guess.”

**Author's Note:**

> the tags say everything i think? will surely write more about this au bc. I love small town aus. will also try to start replying to comments! :^) aaand may or may not add aqours in the future too! hope yall liked this, have a good one and peace out! o7


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